This desciption is applicable to all the applications PHP-eSeller, PHP-SecureArea and PHP-KeyCodes.

You should backup your database at regular intervals. You will then be able to restore the database if something goes wrong.

phpMyAdmin is the name of the program that you can use to manipulate databases. It is usually provided as part of you control panel from your hosting company.

1. Log into your web server control panel to access phpMyAdmin

2. Select ‘Databases’

3. Now click the name of your database.

4. The next screen will show you all the tables inside your database. Click the ‘Export’ tab on the top set of tabs.

5. Look at the left box at the top of the Export section. All the tables in the database you selected are in that box.

* If you have other programs that use the database, then choose only those tables that correspond to your install. In the case of PHP-eSeller, they will be the ones with that start with “ipn_”, with PHP-SecureArea they are the ones that start with “sec_” and with PHP-KeyCodes, they are the ones that start with “key_”
* If the database is being used only by the one program, then, leave it as is (or click ‘Select All’ if you changed the selection)
* Ensure that SQL is checked.

Version PHP 5.3 has a number of functions that are depreciated and earlier versions of PHPeSeller, PHPSecureArea and PHPKeyCodes will display warning messages identifying those depreciated functions when installed on PHP 5.3. It will still work as the functions are still there although they will be removed in PHP 6

To overcome this for earlier versions of the applications, in the error.php file just use

Normally with PHP-SecureArea you use PayPal subscription facilities which control access to your secure area. So when the subscription expires the access to the secure area ends.

One issue with this is that the customer has to have a PayPal account rather than purchasing through a credit / debit card. This is because it is PayPal that controls the subscription process.

It is now possible with PHP-SecureArea to use a PayPal ‘buy now’ button which means that the customer can purchase with a credit / debit card. As it does not use subscriptions it means that access will not automatically end, but this can be controlled using the cron job which checks for manually created subscriptions.

PHP-eSeller when used with PayPal uses IPN to control the digital downloads to the customer.

If you log into PayPal you can check what IPNs have been sent out, you can check if your application has recieved and sent back a response (it should be respopnse code 200) and you can even resend an IPN.

These are available in your PayPal account under History -> IPN History.

There is a facility built into PHP-eSeller that allows you to set shipping for physical goods. This allows you to set shipping according to the overall shopping cart value. To use this you just activate it in the admin section of PHP-eSeller. The calculations will be applied to the physical items only.

If you do not want to use this facility, you can use the PayPal shipping calculations. In which case the shipping will again be based on the physical items and not the digital items. You may prefer to use the PayPal shipping calculations depending on what you requirements are.

You can now use Google checkout as well as PayPal to sell your digital content with PHP-eSeller.

You need a Google checkout account which will identify your merchant codes.

Enter these into the admin area of PHP-eSeller and then select the tick box that enables Google checkout in the shopping cart. The shopping cart will then display both the PayPal and Google Checkout buttons.

Google checkout also has a sandbox test area which is easy to use and work with.